Trump had public meltdown over missed phone call from Putin, former No 10 aide says  —  ‘If Putin wants a call with me you just put him through,’ US president yelled according to Theresa May's former chief of staff  —  Donald Trump exploded with anger at one of his most senior aides …

Room rentals, resort fees and furniture removal: How Trump's company charged the U.S. government more than $900,000  —  The Secret Service had asked for a room close to the president.  But Mar-a-Lago said it was too late.  The room was booked.  Would agents like a room across the street from the president, instead?

Over 100 Ex-Staff Members for John McCain Endorse Joe Biden  —  The group endorsement of Mr. Biden is the latest effort from anti-Trump Republicans to lure conservatives and moderates away from the president, who often clashed with the former Arizona senator.

We Need to Talk About the GOP's ‘Black Friends’  —  The Republican National Convention has been all about using Black people to convince white people it's OK to vote for a bigot.  —  In between the lies and the fear mongering and the stories about having intimate conversations with Jesus …

Pelosi Statement After Conversation with Trump Administration on COVID-19 Relief  —  Washington, D.C. - Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement after a 25-minute phone conversation with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about the need for coronavirus relief:

Tracking the Suspect in the Fatal Kenosha Shootings  —  Footage appears to show a teenager shooting three people during protests in Wisconsin.  We tracked his movements that night.  —  A teenager who walked among protesters in Kenosha, Wis., carrying a military-style semi-automatic rifle …

Trump set to skewer Biden in convention address  —  President Donald Trump will unload on Joe Biden in a blistering convention speech Thursday night, according to two people familiar with the address.  —  Trump is expected to go after the former vice president on everything from the economy to trade.

Pence Delivers the Smallest Audience of GOP's Convention So Far  — Vice president gave address outdoors at historic Fort McHenry  — Total TV viewers may have been impacted by hurricane, protests  —  Vice President Mike Pence attracted the smallest TV audience yet …

Jacob Wohl Accused of Starting a Voter Suppression Scheme  —  The notorious huckster is allegedly behind a robocall campaign clearly designed to spook people from voting by mail.  —  Michigan state officials are investigating a voter-suppression robocall allegedly tied to blundering conservative operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman.

New Hot-Mic Video: What Trump Told His Lawyer When He Didn't Know a Camera Was Rolling  —  For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones' newsletters.  —  On December 10, 2015, Donald Trump took time off from campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination …

“QAnon Is Batshit Crazy”: Lindsey Graham Talks TikTok, Online Conspiracies, and Why He's Sticking With Trump  —  The South Carolina senator, facing a tough reelection fight, recalls warning Trump not to shut down TikTok after getting calls from Hannity, Petraeus, and his niece …

Turmoil consumes Chamber of Commerce as it backs Democrats  —  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is poised to endorse nearly two dozen freshmen House Democrats for reelection, triggering a revolt within the right-leaning organization and drawing fierce pushback from the group's powerful GOP donors.

China Secretly Built A Vast New Infrastructure To Imprison Muslims  —  China rounded up so many Muslims in Xinjiang that there wasn't enough space to hold them.  Then the government started building.  —  Copy … China has secretly built scores of massive new prison and internment camps …

Ronald Reagan sends you to do war crimes in the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War trailer  —  He's one of the new characters in the game  —  Activision and its development studios, Treyarch and Raven Software, debuted a new trailer for the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War …

Max Kellerman: Trump Base in SEC Seems Susceptible to Low Quality Information and Easy to Propagandize  —  Max Kellerman, speaking in a segment on First Take today about what all of the ongoing protests in the NBA and canceled practices mean in the NFL, said that President Donald Trump's base voters …

Wisconsin AG reveals police recovered a knife from the driver's side floor of Jacob Blake's car and says ONE cop shot him seven times as they responded to 911 call from Blake's girlfriend  — Jacob Blake, the black man shot in the back seven times by Wisconsin police, had a knife in his posession …

Virginia Senate passes bill allowing assaulting a police officer to be a misdemeanor  —  Bill removes mandatory jail sentence  —  RICHMOND, Va. - A controversial bill is moving forward during the current Virginia General Assembly special session.  —  On Wednesday, the Virginia Senate voted 21-15 …

Kenosha County sheriff's 2018 comments that some people 'aren't worth saving' resurface after violence  —  Controversial 2018 comments by Kenosha Sheriff David Beth have sparked renewed outrage as the city deals with the aftermath of an officer shooting a Black man in the back on Sunday …

Melania Trump's Ex-BFF Tells (Almost) All An insider's account of falling out with the First Lady.  —  I'd heard Melania Trump speak before.  But I'd never heard her sound like this.  I was sitting at the end of the dining-room table in the Park Avenue home of Stephanie Winston Wolkoff …

Kanye West Is Breaking Campaign Finance Law and Keeping His GOP Backers a Secret  —  By not filing campaign finance forms with the Federal Election Commission, West's campaign is hiding expenditures from public view.  —  Kanye West's presidential campaign continues to push to get him on the ballot in states across the country.

Why This Pro-Life Conservative Is Voting for Biden  —  Since I announced publicly that I will be voting for Joe Biden in November, I've received a few communications from puzzled readers.  “How can you, a supposedly pro-life woman, support someone who believes in killing babies?”

States of Play: North Carolina  —  Dear Readers: In the next installment of our States of Play series — in which we are taking an in-depth look at the key states that will decide the presidential election — we look at North Carolina, a state that both parties have made serious attempts at winning since 2008.

Is Kenosha a Warning for the Biden Campaign?  —  Listening to swing state voters in Arizona and North Carolina.  —  On Wednesday night I remotely conducted two focus groups, one in North Carolina and one in Arizona.  —  The demographics of the groups were the same.  Both consisted of 2016 Trump voters.